The Danish side was under significant pressure towards the end but for the first time in 20 years, Denmark's Under-21 national team in men's handball captured the World Championship title.
Denmark were in the driver's seat for large parts of the match and won Sunday evening 29-26 over Portugal in the final in Poland.
The Danish talents took advantage of several Portuguese mistakes to open up a 8-5 lead after 15 minutes of play.
The errors kept piling up for the Portuguese who struggled to settle into their stylish stride and their errors were ruthlessly punished by the Danish favorites who were ahead 12-6, when the Portuguguese coach called a second time-out after 24 minutes.
That helped the Portuguese team cut a bit of the deficit before the two sides went for the interval with Denmark leading by four goals.
Portugal should be praised for never giving up during the second half. Even though they often seemed overpowered, they kept playing with an impressive tenacity and gradually cut the Danish during a thrilling second half.
The Portuguese received a red card, before Denmark's lead was decimated to just a single goal with just five minutes left.
However, a string of superb saves from Danish keeper Frederik Moller frustrated the Portuguese in the end allowing Denmark to capture the gold.
The Faroe Islands won the bronze with a 27-26 win against Sweden.
With just over 50,000 inhabitants, the Faroe Islands are the smallest nation in history to secure a medal at the Handball World Championships.